The latest Green surge, I would wager, comes largely from ex-Liberal Democrat voters. They are another party whose supporters are seen by too many within Labour as faithful who have lost their way, rather than actual opposition. A huge number, of course, ‘came home’ to Labour following Nick Clegg’s foray into the rose garden with Cameron five years ago. We have come to lose them because we have already treated them as though they are our voters by some divine right.

There are certainly left-wing voters who voted Liberal Democrat in 2010 who will never be voting LibDem again – they voted Liberal Democrat because they believed this was a party that would push Labour from the left, not a party that would give us a Tory government most of us never voted for. Those left-wing voters were already lost to Labour because of the Iraq war, because of hospital PFI, because of tuition fees – for any of many reasons for rejecting Labour on the left. I think Conor Pope is right to say that Labour assumed that it could simply scoop up those votes as the only left-wing party remaining, without needing to change any of the right-wing policies which drove left-wing voters away from Labour.

Somehow it seems typical of The Sun that they would employ as head of PR a man who thinks it’s amusing to tweet soft porn at women journalists and politicians, and who has no idea how to say “I’m sorry, I was wrong to do that” when called on it.

“No More Page 3″ is one of many feminist campaigns I neither oppose nor particularly support: I agree with people who have said there are more important issues (but, no one says you have to always campaign for the most important issues) and I agree with people who point out that the rest of The Sun is problematic too. But, always, the existence of Page 3 is an anti-feminist absurdity and I would be glad to see no more of it. The campaign against Page 3 is exactly the kind of campaignthat enrages anti-feminist men, and so is a good thing.

The Times announced earlier in the week that The Sun intended to drop Page 3. The Times being The Sun’s stablemate, both owned by Rupert Murdoch and operating out of the same building, this was regarded as a reasonably solid news even though The Sun’s response was “no comment”.Continue reading →

Steve Bell’s shtick is picking a comparator for a politician whom he knows he’s going to have to draw a lot. Nick Clegg as cardboard figure with massive chin. Edwina Currie as giant chicken. John Prescott as a toothless bulldog. Nicola Sturgeon has just become one of those politicians, as the very-soon-to-be First Minister of Scotland.

He’s never kind, never affectionate. So it can feel hurtful. Afterwards, you realise it’s very funny and clever, but at the time you feel miffed that your enormous contribution to the country is not being recognised. Does it make you feel better when you see your political rivals skewered? Oh yes!

Steve Bell is a remarkable talent. I’m not in the least surprised at his longevity. Long may he continue.

When ELLE asked him, along with Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party and Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats (and other influential men including Benedict Cumberbatch, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Tom Hiddleston) to wear the Fawcett Society’s iconic ‘This is What a Feminist Looks Like’ t-shirts for ELLE’s inaugural feminism issue (on sale October 30), he refused.

This fight has been on permanent loop for decades – and the MRAs who fruitlessly perpetuate The Issue That Must Not Be Named are often unacceptably ignorant.

George Clooney took part in a Comic-Con panel in New York on Friday, with Tomorrowland’s director Brad Canney and writer Damon Fugeman, to showcase this new Disney sci-fi action adventure inspired by the Disneyland “futuristic ideas” land. Despite his recent marriage to a prominent human rights lawyer in Venice on 27th September, Clooney took time out from his honeymoon to tell Comic-Congoers that “Tomorrowland was “larger than most things I’ve been around” and that Iron Giant director Canney “has a real vision for what he wanted to do. It was really fun to do.”

Oh, and also, George Alamuddin, née Clooney, recent bridegroom of famous human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin, has possibly changed his last name to either Clooney-Alamuddin or just straight up Alamuddin. Predictably, everyone is losing their minds.Continue reading →

The BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel 4 will be holding three four debates before the general election in May 2015.

One of them, reasonably enough, will be a head-to-head between David Cameron and Ed Miliband.

Another two, also reasonably enough, will include besides the Conservative Prime Minister and the leader of the Labour Party (still predicted to be Labour Prime Minister by a narrow majority), the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the LibDems, Nick Clegg – even though the LibDems appear likely to see their 57 seats drop to 18 after 7th May 2015.

The fourth debate will privilege a minor party above the SNP and the Greens: Nigel Farage, who is not an MP, whose party is still predicted to have no MPs after 7th May 2015, will get to take part in a four-way debate with Cameron, Miliband, and Clegg.Continue reading →